Marie-Madeleine Masson de Plissay, Mme Claude-René Cordier de Launay de MONTREUIL, known as the Présidente de MONTREUIL (1721-1789) wife of a president of the Court of Aids, mother-in-law of the Marquis de Sade. L.A.S. "M. de M.", Paris August 23 [1775], to lawyer Gaspard Gaufridy; 4 1/2 pages in-4. Long and interesting letter denouncing the Marquis de Sade's conduct with his wife. "There are things about which she [Mme de Sade] cannot blind herself internally no matter how much she desires them. It is absolutely necessary to discover the infernal monster who seeks to deceive her against her own interest, that of her children and of her husband himself, by revealing hatred and discord at a time when union and trust would be so necessary. This monster, in my opinion, is Mr de S. [Sade] himself. [...] Perhaps you are not as familiar as I am with all the ways in which he is capable of satisfying his passions, whatever they may be. [...] This is not the first time he has acted against his own interests to follow the transport that guides him. He knows that Made de S. can only esteem her mother and all that surrounds her, and can only be convinced of the falsity of all the blackness he has imputed to them. [...] Three months ago he sent me a copy of one of his anonymous letters under Madame's surname, but in his own handwriting, with a great deal of anger (clearly simulated) and quotations that I have verified to be false. In the whole his style and views shine through"... She goes on at length about her feelings regarding these anonymous letters, and explains the reasons for her suspicions, relating the sending of the letters to Sade's movements between Paris and La Coste; his daughter has written him "an infamous letter, dictated or blown by Mr in his anger", who wants to make her mother look like a persecutor. It is imperative to succeed in disabusing Mme de Sade, "from whomever these anonimes come"... It is also necessary "to follow in everything the King's orders given by the Minister"... She still evokes "the new incident", the noises and the "furious fears" in the de Sade family... Her son-in-law must become aware of the danger before it is too late: "He should himself consider the safest course, and calculate that it is always advantageous to avert the danger of the moment, and sacrifice a few years of freedom to the rest of his life, and provide the means for the restoration of his honor. At 35, you still have plenty of time ahead of you. [...] As for me, who doesn't have that much, tired of all these horrors, having done the impossible in every circumstance to save them, receiving nothing but insults and infamy for my gratitude, seeing that they want to lose themselves and their children, tired of sacrificing my rest and my health uselessly, I will give up everything, and they will become what Providence pleases"... Former Alfred Dupont collection (I, December 11-12 1956, no. 308).